


earth things

by violetmercenary



Series: earth things [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Aliens, Family Feels, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Mother-Son Relationship, Post-Episode: s06e20 The Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24090406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetmercenary/pseuds/violetmercenary
Summary: Pearl visits Steven on his road trip. They go to an alien museum. Pearl loves her son.
Relationships: Pearl & Steven Universe
Series: earth things [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737997
Comments: 10
Kudos: 103





	earth things

When she arrives on the warp, the first thing she sees is Steven's form laid relaxed on the edge of its crystalline platform. He seems to be focussed on a rustic book that he holds open in one hand deftly. He jolts at the sound of her entrance, and stows the book hastily into his messenger bag. Before she can even say hello, Pearl finds herself enveloped in Steven’s comfortable embrace, and she returns it readily.  
  
He’s warm, and when his arms hold her a second longer than usual, her lips curve and she sighs, swaying him a little.  
  
“It’s lovely to see you, Steven,” she says simply. He sighs and squeezes her a little tighter for just a moment, then he lets go, pulls back, and Pearl gets to see his beautiful big smile. He looks happy.

“You too, Pearl. I’ve missed you. I mean,” he trails off, looking around the interior of the cave she’s warped into. The walls are toned with layers of warm orange rock, and geometric, Era 1 style patterns are carved into it. The cave is relatively shallow, and the afternoon glow of desert sun leaks in from its wide mouth. Perhaps the most notable feature of the cave, however, is the derelict drop ship, cloaked in dunes of sand swept in by thousands of years winds but present, nevertheless. His eyes move to it and she follows his gaze.  
  
“The trip is good. I’m having a lot of fun. But I miss you guys a lot.”  
  
“You know I miss you too, Steven.”

He lets out a relieved breath that’s not quite a sigh. Then, an impressed whistle.  
  
“Soo.. why’s this drop ship so hidden? Why a warp here?” he queries, stepping off the warp and pacing forward a bit, absorbing the atmosphere. The warp is dusty, and as Pearl steps off to follow him she eyes the way they’ve left footprints. The cave is a fantastic piece of gem history, really.  
  
“I think it functioned as a Homeworld drop ship landing zone. Must have been constructed in the early years, because after a while carvings like these became too frivolous to bother with. Maybe it was meant to be a temple or shrine of sorts, before it was converted?” She says, mostly confident in her answer.  
  
“Reminds me of all the other old gem sites on Earth. Most of them are like this,” he comments, “reclaimed by nature, beautiful for it. There’s just something about it.”

She hums affirmation while she turns for the cave’s entrance, absently noting the sound of Steven’s footsteps behind her.  
  
“This part of the planet is nice on its own, though,” she suggests, shielding her eyes as she steps out of the shade of the grotto. The flat desert stretches far into the horizon, pierced with mesas that cast bulging, dramatic shadows. From their elevated viewpoint,—the cave dips into the side of its own mesa—it is quite a sight.  
  
“I really love it here,” Steven agrees, “I mean, don’t get me wrong. Super duper hot, but it’s not so bad when you’re driving on empty roads for most of the day. But the sights are just amazing. Annnnnnnd…”  
  
She doesn’t like that tone. She catches eye contact with him to make sure he knows and he simply grins in response. Oh no.

“They’re crazy about aliens here,” he manages through his smile, “the whole, inflated green head, huge eyes and flying saucer ship entourage. It’s so much fun.”

“Inflated green head…?” Pearl inquires. She feels like she’s missing something in the strange description. 

He gawks, “wait, you’ve never seen that before?”  
  
“You weren’t talking about Peridot?” she replies, and she’s only half joking.  
  
Steven’s smile explodes and he doubles over in a fit of giggles. Absolute adoration floods Pearl’s sense as she watches him, smiling fondly but still a bit confused.  
  
Eventually he manages to calm down and speak, “You’ll see, it’s the whole theme of the place we’re going.”  
  
She raises an eyebrow. 

—

She understands now, in her own fit of giggles, why Steven loves this place. They’re standing together near a small strip of shops in a small highway town, laughing together, because right in front of them is a sign with a character similar to Steven’s description, three odd fingers waving and a speech bubble that declares ‘welcome, earthlings’.  
  
It’s hysterical, really, but only because of the irony of it all—the strange creature welcomes them to the commercial attractions of this small highway town, and they both know what kind of aliens are actually out there and how different they are, and it's refreshingly bizarre.

They end up in an Alien Anomaly Museum. Museum is a little generous, the place is a hollowed out house with a modest collection of 'alien' knick knacks, including a few deranged pieces of gem architecture, a series of blurry 'UFO' photos, and written articles on sightings. Most of the contents of the museum end up being incomprehensible, but they have fun spotting gem artifacts, relating the writings to gem locations.  
  
They leave with a green alien keychain for Peridot that is promptly stored in Pearl’s gem for convenience, heading towards the small gas station diner at the other end of the street.  
  
“Actually, Pearl. Now that I think about it, I’ve been meaning to ask: are there any other technologically advanced civilisations outside of the Gems?” Steven starts as they enter, holding the door open for Pearl.  
  
The diner is quiet. The linoleum flooring squeaks under her feet as she steps in and absorbs the atmosphere. The dining area is dim, save only for the drastic orange light that streams in through the windows, and the air is dense with fragrant steam and grease. It is pleasant in a way she never thought she would recognise. She takes a moment to consider the question.  
  
“I mean, I haven’t kept up to date,” she starts, tapping her index finger idly on her chin. A waitress points a table out to them wordlessly and they take a seat on the warm, slightly sticky faux leather of the chairs. “There were the Gek. Their influence just crested the border of gem reach, at the far edge of the farthest sector,” she glances at Steven and revels in his enthralled and starry gaze. She smiles.  
  
“Gek are kind of… Reptilian? I’ve never met one. They’re explorers for the most part, and traders for the rest. Most star charts from that side of the universe were bartered from the Gek.” 

“How come I have never heard of this before?” Steven practically whines.  
  
The waiter comes over and Pearl thinks Steven apologises a little too much for not being ready to order, but she doesn’t say anything.

“Probably because it was irrelevant,” she suggests. Steven huffs. “You know gems don’t tend to have as much fascination with alien life as humans, Steven,” she tacks on, trying not to laugh.  
  
“Yeah…” He replies, sounding a little defeated.“I wonder if any of the independent planets interact with them. It would be cool to see. Plus, I don’t think I’ve been to the far sector before.”  
  
Pearl has to fight to quell the spike of worry in her gem. “I’ve only been to the far sector once before. I don’t know much about it, but if you do decide to go, take a galaxy warp over a ship, and try to stay on the planet for the most part. Planets with infrastructure can be few and far inbetween out there, so if you run into trouble it could get ugly pretty quickly.”  
  
Steven hums thoughtfully. The waitress comes over in their brief silence, and he orders black coffee and a sweet pastry. 

“Black coffee?” she asks.  
  
“Yeah. I like it more than milky coffee these days, I don’t know if it’s actually stronger, but it feels like it. Tastes stronger,” he agrees. “Wait, you said you’ve only been to the far sector once. Maybe you wanna come with me? Next time we meet up. Could be a good thing to do for the next hangout. Real alien stuff next time, y’know?”  
  
“Ooh, there’s an idea, Steven.” The thought of accompanying him relieves her from worry and she suddenly finds herself excited by the prospect of revisiting a part of the universe she hadn’t visited in eons. And then,“Only if you really want me to come, though. You don’t have to include me out of pity, you know,” she adds on second thought.

“What? Pearl—” he screws his face in an incomprehensible expression, “I want you to come. I wouldn’t have asked you to come with me if I didn’t want you to.”  
  
She wrings out her hands slightly, sighing, “Of course.” Then she smiles, feeling pride, adoration, something else she can’t quite place.  
  
A beat passes and then suddenly the bitterness of coffee and the sweetness of the powdered sugar on Steven’s pastry fills her senses. She watches fondly as he thanks the server and takes a bite out of his pastry. He notices her and smiles, swallows, clears his throat.  
  
“Hey Pearl, I actually wanted to let you know. And I should preface this by saying that my life was never going to be… not weird. And that everything is behind us now. I just…” He trails off, glances out the window, and for a moment his eyes look distant and vacant, like he’s trying to muster words that won’t come to him. “I want you to know that I appreciate every little thing you’ve done for me. I appreciate you and I love you very much.”  
  
The speech assaults Pearl at her very core, and she feels the tears welling in the corner of her eyes straight away. She can’t help the big smile that crawls her face.  
  
“If there was ever a maternal figure in my life, it was you. You love me like a mother. You hassle me like a mother. You worry over me like a mother,” his eyes go glassy, and when he breathes in deeply and it’s not free of a hitch. “It’s nice. It’s good. It’s comforting. It makes me feel very loved.”  
  
Pearl dabs at her eyes, laughs a lighthearted huff, “What about a Garnet?”  
  
“I mean, I kinda like to put Garnet in the cool aunt who lets you do what you want category,” He says, smirking, wiping his eyes and taking a sip from his hot coffee.

  
“Are you saying I’m not cool?”

“Never in my life.”

They giggle, voices a little delicate and damp.   
  
“It wasn’t hard to adore you Steven,” Pearl says, clasping her hands together, “I didn’t understand what Rose saw in humanity until I met you. You know it’s hard for most gems to navigate human concepts of community and family at first. But those concepts,” she breathes, “those concepts are so complex and fulfilling. I love you in a special way that’s reserved only for you, and I assume it’s the same kind of maternalistic love that you feel. It’s good.”  
  
Steven smiles, hums in agreement.

“It’s good.”

**Author's Note:**

> god there are not enough good "Pearl loves her son" fics


End file.
